his tame submission. One thing was certain, although it seemed
paradoxical; if he had not had suspicions as to Arthur Carroll's
perfect trustworthiness, he would at once have gone to him with the
check.

"I dare say he overdrew his account without knowing it, as many an
honest man does," he reasoned, when trying to apologize to himself
for his unbusiness-like conduct, but always he knew subconsciously
that if he had been perfectly sure of that view of it he would not
have hesitated to put it to the proof. For some reason, probably
unconfessed rather than actually hidden from himself, he shrank from
a possible discovery to Arthur Carroll's discredit. When a man of
Randolph Anderson's kind replies to a question concerning the beauty
of a young girl that he does not know, the assumption is warranted
that he has given the matter consideration. A man usually leaps to a
decision of that kind, and if he has no ulterior motive for
concealment, he would as lief proclaim it to the house-tops.

Usually Randolph Anderson would no more have hesitated about giving
his opinion as to a girl's looks than he would have hesitated about
giving his candid opinion of the weather. For the most part a woman's
face had about as much effect upon his emotional nature as the face
of a day. He saw that it was rosy or gray, smiling and sunny, or
frowning or rainy, then he looked unmovedly at the retreating backs
of both. It was all the same thing. Anderson was a man who dealt
mostly with actualities where his emotions were concerned. With some,
love-dreams grow and develop with their growth and development; with
some not. The latter had been true with Randolph Anderson. Then, too,
he was scarcely self-centred and egotistical enough for genuine
air-castles of any kind. To build an air-castle, one's own